Another metal detecting question?

hello everyone,

I went out detecting with my two boys today. We found some clad coins, and old mecury key, some trash and the back of a wincheser bullet. Not much but as soon as i figure out this ipad and posting pics i will show everyone. My question is why are there always so many signals all the time and which ones should i dig? It seems like my metal detector is always jumping all over the place with signals and it is kind of overwhelming to me and i just dont know what to do. Maybe i should adjust the sincitivity or something. Does anyone have an suggestions or answers to this? Thanks for reading and happy hunting.

It's dangerous to be right when those with a thimbleful of perceived authority are wrong.

Mar 2012

Michigan

White's MXT, DFX, GMT and Fisher F5

811

122 times

Metal Detecting

complicated question.

For starters, there is a lot of "junk"out there. A LOT more than you would think. regardless of what the TV shows tell you,it is HARD work.

The key is to get to know your machine. If you are looking for coins, try "planting" some coins in you yard and experimenting with the settings. Get it to where it just barely picks them up and go with those settings for the field.

I take a nickel and drop it on the ground, and then set my machine to where it will just barely pick it up, I do this because nickels are at the very bottom of the scale of what MDs pick up using discrimination.

I've only run into one situation where I needed to turn down the sensitivity due to electrical interferance. That was in a school yard where the tot lot was near the power input line. I can detect directly under that line in my backyard without trouble.

MDs are marvelous machines, but the meters are designed to hit on only a limited range of signals. When signals don't fit into that nice pretty slot, the meter can go crazy as it displays the different signals the target gives off. IMO it's even worse when the machine has different tones and all of them are going off.

Two places to practice that can have limited trash are your own yard and the school yard tot lots that are kept clean. (The less you see on the surface, generally the less trash that's under the surface.)

I'd say at least when just starting, do not have sensitivity at max or discrimination at 0. The lower sensitivity can help separate coins close to junk & minimizes false signals. You should at least reject iron & foil. In real trashy areas, you migt try rejecting everything below zincs. I used a Delta 4000 in 2 heavily hunted and trashy parks that get detected regularly, using low sensitivity & high discrimination. Found dozens of coins near the surface in a 1 1/2-2 hours. Best wishes, George (MN)